This should be a criminal offense with no statute of limitations

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Yes, this makes me sick too. I understand why a poor person hacks things. He doesn't have the money to hire a pro but doesn't have the knowledge to do it right himself; so he jacklegs or hires a jackleg. But I too have seen garbage at a person's house who could obviously afford proper work. Some days I really get no satisfaction from this work any more
 
Back when I was apprenticing, early 90's, there was a rash of jobs in our area done by we guessed the same guy. All in affluential neighborhoods. Relocating a panel and using free flung THHN across a basement ceiling, using the armor of BX as a traveller, you get the gist.

Turns out it was a nephew of one of the homeowners who was going to one of the tech high schools and was doing work for friends/family for dirt cheap.

Nothing more dangerous than a third year apprentice with a trunk.
 
jmellc said:
Yes, this makes me sick too. I understand why a poor person hacks things. He doesn't have the money to hire a pro but doesn't have the knowledge to do it right himself; so he jacklegs or hires a jackleg. But I too have seen garbage at a person's house who could obviously afford proper work. Some days I really get no satisfaction from this work any more
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I did a night job at a trailer park way back. Resident of the nearest unit came out to talk. I was polite but not chatty, as he was half tanked. He called me a few months later that he was apprenticing under someone for electrical work & was doing a job somewhere. Asked me how he should do this and how he should do that, was this OK, that OK? I told him to turn the job over to his boss; that if he had to ask that many questions, he had no business doing the work, & no license either.
 
jmellc said:
I did a night job at a trailer park way back. Resident of the nearest unit came out to talk. I was polite but not chatty, as he was half tanked. He called me a few months later that he was apprenticing under someone for electrical work & was doing a job somewhere. Asked me how he should do this and how he should do that, was this OK, that OK? I told him to turn the job over to his boss; that if he had to ask that many questions, he had no business doing the work, & no license either.
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i think there's the basics-101 for electrical, understanding power and it's dangers. then there's trade info on how to do things (proper wire, proper gear, etc), and then there are the codes we have to abide by. sadly many people will not recognize the dangers if they dont know at least the 1st two items and attempt to do electrical work. obvioulsy the person who did this work has no clue about Al wire in general nor the dangers of mixing Al and Cu.

in the OP pics it baffles me why the person even used that center box to tie wires together........ the person was perhaps a wanna-be plumber and was thinking "T" to split off the supply ?
 
FionaZuppa said:
i
in the OP pics it baffles me why the person even used that center box to tie wires together........ the person was perhaps a wanna-be plumber and was thinking "T" to split off the supply ?
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I have been doing this 30 something years, have licenses in three states and I might do it just like in the picture although with proper connectors.

Your idea to double up the the 8AWGs in one disco and jump to the other is a definite fail in my area.
 
iwire said:
I have been doing this 30 something years, have licenses in three states and I might do it just like in the picture although with proper connectors.

Your idea to double up the the 8AWGs in one disco and jump to the other is a definite fail in my area.
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i am not bashing, but i am willing to bet 99 out of 100 people would not do it this way with proper connectors. i gave my worst scenario for doing it "wrong", which was a safer way.
 
J.P. said:
:lol: :thumbsup: Would've been cheaper/faster just to hit a small outdoor panel and whip out to each unit. If those discos were fused, im pretty sure it would've been legal.
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I actually ended up putting an outdoor CH breaker panel in with two 30 amp breakers. Had the original hack used Polaris insulated bugs it may have passed as taps. However, in his infinite wisdom he used big blue wire nuts and, in anticipation of the possibility of corrosion, he used a silicone sealer inside the cap (and I love the fact that he taped the splices so that they wouldn't come apart !!!). Now, we all know that touching dissimilar metals like copper to aluminum together will cause oxidation over a period of time. However, the moment electricity passes through them in a splice the rate of oxidation rate increases unless you use an anti-oxident. So, tap rule compliance or not, this was a bad idea to begin with and a bad install.
 
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